Globalism and the International Art Film
Syllabus, Freshman Seminar, Spring 2015
Doug Dibbern
Schedule
Screening: Monday, 6pm – 9pm
Class: Tuesday, 2:00pm – 4:30pm
Grading and Requirements
35% First Essay: an 8-12 page research paper on the contemporary European art film
35% Second Essay: an 8-12 page research paper on the contemporary Asian art film
10% Class Participation
20% Quizzes on the Readings
Required Textbooks
Hamid Naficy, A Social History of Iranian Cinema, Vol. 4: The Globalizing Era, 1984-2010.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012.
James Tweedie, The Age of New Waves: Art Cinema and Staging of Globalization. Oxford
University Press, 2013.
Cindy Hing-yuk Wong, Film Festivals: Culture, People, and Power on the Global Screen. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011.
Andras Balint Kovacs, The Cinema of Bela Tarr: The Circle Closes. Wallflower Press, 2013.
Dominique Nasta, Contemporary Romanian Cinema: The History of an Unexpected Miracle.
Wallflower Press, 2013.
PART ONE: WESTERN EUROPE
Week 1: The International Film Festival
Screening
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Austria, 2010)
Readings
Wong, “Chapter 1: History, Structure, and Practice in the Festival World,” pp. 29-64.
Wong, “Chapter 2: The Films of the Festivals,” pp. 65-99
Week 2: Cultural Policy in the European Union
Screening
Talk to Her (Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2002)
Readings
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Wong, “Chapter 3: Auteurs, Critics, and Canons: Extratextual Elements and the Construction of
Festival Films,” pp. 100-128.
Wong, “Chapter 4: Film Festivals and Film Industries,” pp. 129-158.
Week 3: Style and the European Art Cinema
Screening
Melancholia (Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2011)
Readings
Linda Badley, “Upstaging the American Dream,” Lars von Trier. University of Illinois Press,
2011.
Week 4: The Slow Take
Screening
The Turin Horse (Bela Tarr, Hungary, 2012)
Readings
Kovacs, “Chapter 3: Film Style,” pp. 47-71
Kovacs, “Chapter 4: The Evolution of Film Style,” pp. 72-98.
PART TWO: ROMANIA
Week 5: The Romanian New Wave
Screening
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, Romania, 2005)
Readings
Nasta, “Chapter 10: Less is More: Puiu, Poremboiu, Muntean and the Impact of Romanian
Minimalism,” pp. 155-180.
Week 6: Post-Communism
Screening
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Cristi Mungiu, Romania, 2007)
Readings
Nasta, “Chapter 11: The 4-3-2 Paradigm: Mungiu’s Large-Scale Phenomenon,” 181-200
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Week 7: Nationalism, Peripheries, and the New Wave
Screening
Police, Adjective (Corneliu Poremboiu, Romania, 2009)
Readings
Nasta, “Chapter 12: Making Films for Wider Audiences: Romanian Cinema Turns Global,” pp.
201-220
PART THREE: IRAN
Week 8: The Iranian Revolution and Cultural Policy
Screening
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2011)
Readings
Naficy, “Chapter Three: All Certainties Melt into Thin Air: Art-House Cinema, a ‘Postal
Cinema,’” pp. 175-268.
Week 9: The Iranian New Wave of the Nineties
Screening
This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2012)
Readings
Naficy, “Chapter Five: Iranian, But with a Different Accent: A Cinema of Displacement or a
Displaced Cinema,’” pp. 369-440.
Week 10: Repression and Diaspora
Screening
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, Italy, 2012)
Readings
Naficy, “Chapter Five: Iranian, But with a Different Accent: A Cinema of Displacement or a
Displaced Cinema,’” pp. 441-511.
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PART FOUR: CHINA(S)
Week 11: The Hong Kong Film Industry
Screening
In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, 2000
Readings
Vivian P.Y. Lee, Hong Kong Cinema Since 1997: The Post-Nostalgic Dimension. Palgrave
MacMillan, 2007.
Week 12: The Taiwanese New Wave and Cultural Policy
Screening
Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)
Readings
James Tweedie, “Chapter 4: The Urban Archipelago: Taiwan’s New Wave and the East Asian
Economic Boom,” pp. 143-177.
Tweedie, “Chapter 5: Morning in the City: Taipei and the Globalization of the City Film,” pp.
178-194
Tweedie, “Chapter 6: The Haunting of Taipei,” pp. 195-208.
Week 13: The PRC and the Aesthetic Perils of Globalization
Screening
A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhang-ke, China, 2013)
Readings
Tweedie, “Chapter 7: Chinese Cinema in a World of Flows: The New Wave in the People’s
Republic of China,” pp. 209-237
Tweedie, “Chapter 8: The Fifth Generation and the Youth of China,” pp. 238-275
PART FIVE: CONCLUSION
Week 14: The International Art Film Today
Screening
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, 2010)
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